Several citizens returned to their homes Wednesday after an hour-long evacuation due to a ruptured gas line, which some said sounded like an explosion.
Columbus Fire and Rescue responded to reports of a natural gas explosion at roughly 3:30 p.m. in a vacant lot around 2100 Strawberry Street, Chief Duane Hughes told The Dispatch on Thursday.
Firefighters arrived to find several natural gas utility vehicles from Miller Pipeline already on the scene. Atmos Energy said the contractor was performing planned construction work with excavation equipment when it discovered a natural gas leak.
Fire vehicles registered natural gas levels in the low explosive range, Hughes said. As workers tried to cap the ruptured line, the fire department evacuated the three houses nearby.
Personnel from Atmos Energy, which partners with Miller Pipeline for gas service in the area, also arrived as work proceeded. After roughly an hour the pipe, a plastic line that once served a residence and branches off from a largest metal line, had been successfully capped and families returned to their homes, Hughes said.
Robert Lesley, Atmos Energy’s director of public affairs, said Thursday that no actual explosion occurred, just a high-pressure rupture. He said that the sound of a rupture can easily be mistaken for an explosion even with no ignition.
“Sometimes when gas gets out like that, especially in a bigger line that goes into a house, it sounds like (an explosion) and it’s like, ‘Oh my God, where is all that gas coming from?’ That’s just how they sound, so sometimes people make mistakes. I’m hearing from our guys that there was no explosion.”
Hughes also said Columbus Fire and Rescue received at least five calls Wednesday reporting the smell of natural gas, which he was told was because gas line pressure had dropped and automatically prompted the addition of more mercaptans, the compounds that give odorless natural gas its smell.
Lesley said he couldn’t confirm that and hadn’t heard anything about low pressure or added mercaptans.
Hughes nevertheless warned residents to exercise proper safety procedure if they smell gas, exiting their homes and calling 911. They should absolutely not attempt to air out their homes, he said, which can introduce oxygen and push an enclosure over the line of explosion risk.
“Don’t attempt to ventilate,” he said. “There’s a flammable limit with natural gas, and sometimes when a person tries to ventilate they introduce oxygen to a gas-rich environment and make it more flammable. The best thing to do is leave the structure and wait for emergency crews to arrive.”
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